(Mother begins by translating into French the message by Sri Aurobindo that she wants to give on 24 November.)
“One must rely on the Divine and yet do some enabling sadhana—the Divine gives the fruit not by the measure of the sadhana but by the measure of the soul’s sincerity and its aspiration. Also, worrying does no good—‘I shall be this, I shall be that, what shall I be?’ Say: ‘I am ready to be not what I want but what the Divine wants me to be,’—all the rest should go on that base.”
April 13, 1935
Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Yoga, XXIII.582
They have found some letters—some old letters—from Sri Aurobindo to Barin and the lawyer1—extraordinary! They are incredible. They give the measure of Sri Aurobindo as a man of action. Even in 1920, he intended to undertake an action. To organize centers all over India, the world, oh!… a plan!… And that was before the liberation of the country!
He says that he has completely withdrawn to find his yoga, but once he had found it, he is going to start his action2….
***
(A little later, Mother signs the contract for the German edition of “Supermanhood.”)
And in Russian?
(silence)
The 30th is your birthday….
You must admit, it’s strange that the book is being published in Germany before being published in France.
The book?
Yes, it is being published in Germany, but not in France, they don’t want it. I find that rather….
It’s because there’s no one to look after it.
In any event, wherever we tried it was refused.
Have you seen M.’s translation [another English translator]?
Yes, in part. Many passages are very beautiful.
Ah!
I think that on the whole it will be effective—not everything is understood.
Really?
No, but ultimately that doesn’t matter. What she has understood and brought out is brought out well and forcefully. Many deeper things are omitted. But we have no choice. Her merit is that what she has understood comes through with force and sometimes even beauty…. I told her I was very happy. And in fact I am happy, because that’s enough, it’s effective.
I spoke to her about the publication. She said it was easier for her in America than in England, but she had to see.
We’ll see.
***
ADDENDUM
(Letter from Sri Aurobindo to C.R. Das, his lawyer in the Alipore bomb case.)
18 November 1922
Dear Chitta,
It is a long time, almost two years I think, since I have written a letter to anyone. I have been so much retired and absorbed in my Sadhana that contact with the outside world has till lately been reduced to minimum.
… I have become confirmed in a perception which I had always, less clearly and dynamically then, but which has now become more and more evident to me, that the true basis of work and life is the spiritual,—that is to say, a new consciousness to be developed only by Yoga. I see more and more manifestly that man can never get out of the futile circle the race is always treading until he has raised himself on to the new foundation. I believe also that it is the mission of India to make this great victory for the world. But what precisely was the nature of the dynamic power of this greater consciousness? What was the condition of its effective truth? How could it be brought down, mobilised, organised, turned upon life? How could our present instruments, intellect, mind, life, body be made true and perfect channels for this great transformation? This was the problem I have been trying to work out in my own experience and I have now a sure basis, a wide knowledge and some mastery of the secret. Not yet its fulness and complete imperative presence—therefore I have still to remain in retirement. For I am determined not to work in the external field till I have the sure and complete possession of this new power of action,—not to build except on a perfect foundation.
But still I have gone far enough to be able to undertake one work on a larger scale than before—the training of others to receive this Sadhana and prepare themselves as I have done, for without that my future work cannot even be begun. There are many who desire to come here and whom I can admit for the purpose, there are a greater number who can be trained at a distance; but I am unable to carry on unless I have sufficient funds to be able to maintain a centre here and one or two at least outside. I need therefore much larger resources than I at present command. I have thought that by your recommendation and influence you may help Barin to gather them for me….
Yours,
Aurobindo
On Himself, XXVI.436
***
(Letters from Sri Aurobindo to his younger brother Barin.)
18 November 1922
Dear Barin,
… I have been till now and shall be for some time longer withdrawn in the practice of a Yoga destined to be a basis not for withdrawal from life, but for the transformation of human life. It is a Yoga in which vast untried tracts of inner experience and new paths of Sadhana had to be opened up and which, therefore, needed retirement and long time for its completion. But the time is approaching, though it has not yet come, when I shall have to take up a large external work proceeding from the spiritual basis of this Yoga.
It is, therefore, necessary to establish a number of centres small and few at first but enlarging and increasing in number as I go on, for training in this Sadhana…. The first, which will be transferred to British India when I go there, already exists at Pondicherry, but I need funds both to maintain and to enlarge it….
Many more desire and are fit to undertake this Sadhana than I can at present admit and it is only by large means being placed at my disposal that I can carry on this work which is necessary as a preparation for my own return to action….
Aurobindo Ghose
On Himself, XXVI.435
***
1 December 1922
Dear Barin,
I must now make clear the reasons why I hesitated to sanction the publication [of certain texts]…. But that about non-cooperation would lead, I think, to a complete misunderstanding of my real position. Some would take it to mean that I accept the Gandhi programme…. As you know, I do not believe that the Mahatma’s principle can be the true foundation or his programme the true means of bringing out the genuine freedom and greatness of India…. My own policy, if I were in the field, would be radically different in principle and programme…. But the country is not yet ready to understand its principle or to execute its programme.
Because I know this very well, I am content to work still on the spiritual and psychic plane, preparing there the ideas and forces, which may afterwards at the right moment and under the right conditions precipitate themselves into the vital and material field, and I have been careful not to make any public pronouncement as that might prejudice my possibilities of future action. What that will be will depend on developments. The present trend of politics may end in abortive unrest, but it may also stumble with the aid of external circumstances into some kind of simulacrum of self-government. In either case the whole real work will remain to be done. I wish to keep myself free for it in either case….
Aurobindo
On Himself, XXVI.438
C.R. Das, Sri Aurobindo's lawyer in the Alipore bomb case. There are three letters; one dated November 18, 1922, to C.R. Das, and the two others to Barin, Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, dated November 18, 1922 and December 1, 1922. The letters are included at the end of this conversation. ↩
Even in 1928, when Tagore came to Pondicherry to visit Sri Aurobindo, he repeated his intention to go out of Pondicherry and launch an external action. But probably on the way, Sri Aurobindo realized... just what Mother was discovering. ↩
***
October 16, 1971
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